Dance taps



N v. 1961 L. G. STONE 3,007,260

DANCE TAPS Filed Aug. 8, 1960 Has INVENTOR LOWELL 6. STONE BY MLLJWWM 7 ATTORNEY United States enemas Patented Nov. 7, H361 ice 3,007,260 DANCE TAPS Lowell G. Stone, 218 Cieveland St, Elyria, Ohio Filed Aug. 8, 1960, Ser. No. 48,312 11 Claims. (CI. 36-83) This invention relates to dancing shoes, and more particularly to sound producing devices associated with such shoes, known as taps.

For many years metal plates have been secured by screws, nails or rivets to the toes and heels of dancing shoes and the form of dancing using such shoes has become known as tap dancing. In this form of dancing the sound of the tap-s against the floor forms a sort of accompaniment for music, or may be likened to the music of a drum.

The known taps in universal use are of one piece and are permanently secured to ca ch shoe. It is necessary for the merchant selling such taps to carry many different sizes of taps to suit the many different sizes of shoes.

The dances require a great deal of practice and many parents find that the sound of the child practicing can be very distracting. Also professional dancers often wish to have different sounding taps.

Provision of several pairs of dancing shoes is expensive for the dancer, and needing to carry many different sizes of taps is expensive for the merchant.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide a single size of tap for all sizes of shoes.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means for mounting tap-s on shoes to provide for ready replacement of the taps.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide taps that may be used on successive shoes as required by a growing child tap dancer.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide means so that a tap dance student may substitute, what may be called, mute taps for practicing, for the taps that would be required for a performance before an audience.

Other and further objects and advantages will appear from the following specification taken with the accompanying drawing in which like reference characters refer .0 similar parts in the several views and in which FIGURE 1 is a view of the soie of a shoe with the taps in place;

FIGURE 2 is a similar view of a childs shoe;

FIGURE 3 is a bottom view of one toe tap;

FIGURE 4 is a section taken on line 44 of FIG- URE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a section taken on line 55 of FIG- URE 3;

FIGURE 6 is a section taken on line 66 of FIGURE 3 showing dovetail means to secure the taps to the shoes;

FIGURE 7 is a section taken on line 7-7 of FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to the view of FIGURE 7 to show a modified securing means.

As seen in FIGURE 1 a complete set of taps on a pair of dancing shoes include heel as well as toe taps and each tap, toe and heel, is made in two parts. The heel taps are generally flat but must fit the shape of the heel to provide proper support for the dancer. The toe taps are not fiat, but are dished to fit the toe portion of the shoe sole at the toe. Here again the taps must extend to the edges of the toe of the shoe to provide support for the dancer.

FIGURE 2 shows that the taps of the present invention conform also to a small childs shoe.

The description of the taps will be directed especially to the toe taps as the structure of the heel taps will be readily understood by analogy.

The toe taps 10, as seen in FIGURES 3, 4 and 5 are slightly dished (concave upwardly when in use) and are somewhat tapered from the thicker toe end to the thinner end under the shoe sole. Toe tap fl is similar to tap 10 but is of opposite hand, and is a mirror image of tap element it Toe taps 10 and 11 are therefore comple- Inentary.

On a childs shoe as seen in FIGURE 2 the inner edges 12 and 13 abut. On an adults shoe, as seen in FIGURE 1 the edges 12, 13 flare rearwardly but the forward curved margins 14, 15 in both FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 2, lie closely along the curve of the front edges of the toe of the shoe to provide a firm support for the dancer.

The taps need to be secured to the shoe. Clearly tape of the configuration shown in FIGURES 15 could be secured to shoes in any conventional manner. Such conventional securement of the taps of the present invention will provide the benefits of not requiring the merchant to stock more than one size of taps but will not provide for quick interchangeability of taps.

Having the taps slightly loose will provide freedom of the taps to augment the sound. The idea of using loose screws to mount taps so they can rattle or clatter is known so a loose conventional attachment of the present taps is not illustrated. The shapes of the taps of the present invention are important regardless of the specific securing means used to hold them in place.

The preferred securement of the taps to the shoe includes dovetail cleats 16 and I7 for the toe taps lit and 11 and dovetail cleats 18 and 19 for the heel taps 2t) and 21. The locations of these cleats on the shoes is seen in FIGURES 1 and 2.

Cleat 16, taken as an example, is seen in transverse section in FIGURE 6 and in longitudinal section in FIG- URE 7 showing the concave convex shape of the tap where the upper or inner surface toward the shoe is concave. Tap 10 is provided with a dovetail groove 22 that loosely receives the cleat 16. In order that the taps may be mounted on the cleats after the cleats have been mounted on the shoe a restricted extension 22' of groove 22 is provided. The tap is then slid over the cleat endwise of the cleat. Extension 22' is of such size as to require considerable pressure on the tap to force it over the cleat. When, however, the cleat 16 has pass-ed the restricted part 22' the tap is securely mounted on the shoe without danger of its becoming accidentally detached. At the same time, once beyond the restricted passage 22 the cleat fits the groove 22 rather loosely so that the tap is free to sound without being damped by the shoe sole except when pressed against the shoe sole. This gives rise to the possibility of novel sounds for the taps, because of the acoustical resonance of their concaveconvex shape giving a sound hex acoustical effect.

To remove the tap from the shoe it will be seen in FIGURE 7 that the tap must be pushed to the left while the right hand end is lifted to start the cleat 16 into the restriction 22.

In FIGURES 6 and 7 the tap is shown as being of plastic and the cleat of metal. Using the metal cleat the number of screws required may be reduced as the cleat is held from moving by a tang 23 at each end of the cleat.

A slightly different cleat i6 is seen in FIGURE 8. In this case the cleat has one end free of the shoe sole as seen at 24, and is of sufficiently resilient material that the end of the cleat adjacent the restriction portion 22; of the groove can be deflected downwardly to facilitate the cleat entering the restricted portion 22. A key 25 is provided and a hole is made in the tap so that the key 25 may be thrust against the cleat end to deflect it downwardly.

The heel taps 20 and 21 are generally flat and are complementary mirror images of each other. They are secured to the shoe in the same manner that toe taps 10 and 11 are. It is noted that the directions of the cleats for the taps and of the grooves in the taps are such that in dancing there will be little, if any, tendency for the taps to become disconnected from the shoe even if the restricted portion 22 of the groove were larger than desirable.

I claim:

1. A tap means for dancing shoes comprising a pair of a symmetrical complementary tap elements having a concave surface to normally engage the shoe sole when in use and being of similar mirror image shape for each shoe, each said tap element having a curved outer edge conforming generally to the curve of a shoe sole, whereby said tap means is adapted for use on shoes of any size.

2. Tap means for a dancing shoe comprising a pair of asymmetrical mirror image toe tap elements, and a pair of asymmetrical mirror image heel tap elements, the outer edges of each of said tap elements being curved to conform generally to the curve of the edge of the shoe whereby said tap means may be used with shoes of any size, and a concave surface presented toward the dancing shoe whereby when mounted loosely on a shoe the taps will produce a sound box acoustical effect.

3. In a tap dance shoe including a sole having a curved toe end and a heel, a toe tap formed of two mirror image parts each having a slightly dished upper surface conforming generally to the shoe sole and having the outer forward edge curved to follow the curvature of the forward toe end of the shoe sole, and a straight line inner edge, a dovetailed groove the upper surface of each toe tap part extending from near the forward end of said inner edge, reaiwardly and outwardly toward said curved outer forward edge, a dovetail cleat for each said toe tap part mounted on said shoe sole, each said cleat lying in such a position that when a cleat is seated in said groove of the toe tap part said outer and forward edge of sad toe tap part follows the curvature of said shoe sole.

4. The device of claim 3 including also a heel tap formed of two mirror image parts each of said parts having a flat upper surface and an outer and rearward edge curved to follow the curvature of said heel, an inner edge forming a straight line, a dovetail groove in each said heel tap parts parallel to said inner edge, extending rearwardly from the forward portions of said heel tap parts, a dovetail cleat for each said heel tap part secured to the shoe heel in such a position that when said dovetailed cleats are seated in said dovetailed grooves the outer and rearward edges of said heel taps follow the curvature of said shoe heel.

5. The device of claim 4 in which said dovetail grooves each include a restriction at its forward end of such extent as to provide resistance to removal of said dovetail 4 cleat from said dovetail groove after it has been seated therein.

6. The device of claim 5 in which the grooves and the cleats are proportioned so that there is play between said tap portions and said cleats when said cleats are seated in said grooves.

7. The device of claim 3 in which said dovetail grooves each include a restriction at its forward end of such extent as to provide resistance to removal of said dovetail cleat from said dovetail groove after it has been seated therein.

8. The device of claim 7 in which the grooves and the cleats are proportioned so that there is play between said tap portions and said cleats when said cleats are seated in said grooves.

9. The device of claim 7 in which the forward end of each of said cleats is free of the shoe sole and the material of the cleat is resilient and each tap part is provided with an aperture so located that when said cleat is seated in said groove said forward end of said cleat can be depressed to facilitate removal of said tap from said cleat.

10. A dance tap comprising a pair of asymmetrical complementary tap elements of similar mirror image shape for each shoe, each tap element having a curved outer and forward edge conforming generally to the curve of a shoe sole whereby said taps may be used on shoes of any size, the top surfaces of said taps presented toward said shoe sole being concave to provide acoustical resonance when said taps are loosely mounted on a shoe, and to provide solid edge engagement between the tap and shoe when said taps are pressed against the shoe sole.

11. A dance tap comprising a pair of asymmetrical complementary tap elements of similar mirror image shape for each shoe, each tap element having a curved outer and rearward edge conforming generally to the curve of a shoe heel whereby said taps may be used on shoes of any size, the top surfaces of said taps presented toward said shoe heel being concave to provide acoustical resonance when said taps are loosely mounted on a shoe, and to provide solid edge engagement between the t ap and shoe when said taps are pressed against the shoe heel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,723,375 Rubin Aug. 6, 1929 2,104,179 Agosta et al Jan. 4, 1938 2,124,458 Buckler July 19, 1938 2,168,303 Sothen Aug. 1, 1939 2,173,599 Sothen Sept. 19, 1939 2,200,848 Mandalian May 14, 1940 2,479,428 Sunseri Aug. 16, 1949 2,708,321 Cathers et al May 17, 1955 2,739,394 Morgan Mar. 27, 1956 2,746,175 Root May 22, 1956 

